tryout info

Question
hi martial i saw your post and wanted to know if you could e-mail me the tryout info you spoke to the last asker about. I'm a 25 year old goaltender from Philadelphia PA and would like nothing more than to make it somewhere, i know I'm good enough my family just never had the money to get me into a higher level as a kid, as you already know goalie is expensive to equip. i played some college and men's higher leagues now and have been told with coaching I'd be a great goalie. any help is greatly appreciated

Answer
Hi Brian...

I totally understand your situation!

I am not sure which one you are referring to - but here is some info on minor pro team/leagues you may be able to contact!

Most of the tryouts are typically in late summer... though some leagues will run some screening skates at the end of their seasons in  the spring.  

You can write to the team's scouts and managers that you are interested in, sending in your resume, and most will let you know when their open tryouts are!

The hockey news will advertise exposure camps during the summer months.  There is usually very little TRYOUT recruiting during the season.   

Sending in your resume COULD get you call though!  If for some reason a team suffers alot of injuries -- I've heard stories that some teams have had to call up (men's league) players in a road town to see if they could come out and SUB...  and some guys have even stayed on after the game!!!


So if you are looking for minor pro - there are several leagues you can look up --  SPHL (http://www.thesphl.com/), UHL (http://www.theuhl.com/) and CHL (http://www.centralhockeyleague.com/)to name three, or if you want to go to Europe - you can check out the Elite League (http://www.eliteleague.co.uk/) -- if you really want to aim higher you can try ECHL or AHL as well.  They usually have their open tryouts a little later in the year.

As I said you can also buy the Hockey News or maybe look up their site - they will occasionally have an ad or two in there about OPEN FREE AGENT CAMPS (see: http://www.ihchockey.com/news.htm OR http://www.bloorstreetwest.com/hockeytech_old/agentcamp.html) for Minor Pro players who want to get scouted and maybe get an "agent".  These camps will get you exposure and from there you may get a tryout...  be prepared as sometimes it is in Europe...  It pays decent in Europe -- but it can be a trek if you are not used to it!

Here is another link you might want to look into --  you can actually recruit an "agent" who might be able to guide you even better:  http://esportsdesk.com/leagues/custom_page.cfm?leagueID=13721%26clientID=4226%26...


Again know that there are alot of "players" on the market --  so what will make it tougher for you is if you don't have a track record...  i.e. recent stats? references.  However, some coaches are more open to 'risking' than others - you may have to PR yourself for that.

Notwithstanding -- if you can stand OUT each and every game they watch you play -- you may get a shot somewhere and the key will be for you to keep the same level of play (or higher) going.

Feel free to follow up with anything if I missed something or if you wish that I elaborate.

Thanks and good luck with the puck!

Martial